"To be honest, I still don't know if I'm following, but everything you said makes sense. Honestly, it's the best explanation for how you've been acting these past months we've spent together."

  She began counting on her fingers. Recalling every memory she could.

  "The wolf, in the village. I always tried to find an answer to how you knew it was going to attack before I even realized the danger. You jumped before the wolf came out of the woods. The fight with Aunt Bela, against the creature, you moved as if you knew exactly where each blow would land. Exactly like it was with the wolf. But from the outside, it just looked like you had super reflexes or something."

  "This morning, at training, was it the same thing?" She shook her head, an incredulous smile touching her lips. "In the entrance exam, when I offered you the chocolate, when you made that jump to catch the arrow, or when you saved Lira. All of that was stuff you already knew was going to happen?"

  "Yes," I admitted, without changing my tone of voice or waiting for a less unpleasant answer.

  Katia was silent for a moment. Her fingers, still intertwined, pressed against her leg with more force.

  "Do you have any idea how hard I've tried to keep up with you?" The question came out sharper than normal, laden with something I couldn't immediately identify. "Every training session, every fight, every time you did something impossible and I kept trying to understand how..."

  She stopped. Took a deep breath. When she continued, her voice was more controlled.

  "No. That's not the problem."

  Her fingers pressed even tighter against her own leg. "Regardless of everything, I saw you make an effort. That's not what I should be saying."

  She lifted her eyes to me. The lavender gleam remained, but dry.

  "You didn't owe me this explanation. If you had chosen not to say anything, I would have understood. But why now? Of all the possible moments, why now? You have no obligation to tell me this. You could have continued as you were. I would never have figured it out on my own. It could have been in the infirmary, when we spent nights awake talking about stupid things, right after the exam, but why now?"

  I knew this question would come, and the explanation for it is worse than having kept the secret.

  "Katia, I..." If I say I was scared or anything like that, her reaction will be less bad. But what's the difference? I'd just be repeating the same behavior in a different way.

  And then the voice finally came out, against any expectation Katia might have had.

  "It's because I need your help."

  The fingers that were pressed against her leg lost their strength. "How exactly?" The question came cautiously, but there was something else there. A thread of willingness, hidden beneath the caution.

  "What I'm telling you now, it's possible that Veyr has discovered it," I said, the man's name heavy on my tongue. "The reason I asked you to keep an eye on him during the reaction test was this."

  Katia frowned. Her silence said the explanation wasn't enough.

  "In the test... At the end," I continued, before she needed to ask. "When the test ended, I'm sure someone tried to kill me."

  "Tried to kill you?" Her voice came out sharper, more tense. "Mio, what are you..."

  "An ice needle. Almost invisible. At my back, at heart level." I kept my tone neutral, factual, the only way to tell this without letting my voice tremble. "If I hadn't avoided it, it would have been a fatal attack."

  More silence and clock ticks, which before were just an addition to the room, now seemed to be the main attraction of the environment.

  "I don't know how to solve this," I finished, admitting out loud what had been consuming me since I left that gymnasium. "I don't know what he wants. I don't know how far he'll go. I don't know how to protect myself from someone who can do something like that without leaving traces. I don't even know if it was Veyr who tried it."

  Katia seemed to ponder for a moment, an expected reaction given the complexity and density of the information.

  "So let me see if I understood correctly. The reason you told me all of this now was because you want help?"

  She didn't wait for an answer. She continued, the words coming out in a contained flow, like water pressed against a dam.

  "Honestly, Mio, that's the worst thing you could have said."

  Her fingers finally relaxed their grip on her leg, but it wasn't a good sign. It was the kind of relaxation that precedes a storm.

  "You omitted this for all this time. Months. Training sessions. Fights. Moments when I stood there, trying to understand how you did what you did, thinking it was my fault for not being good enough." She paused briefly, enough to swallow whatever was trying to rise up her throat. "And now you tell me. Not because you trust me. Not because you think I deserve to know. But because you need something."

  Her gaze met mine. It was searching for something. Maybe regret. Maybe a denial.

  "Is that it?"

  The silence stretched between us. I could see the options unfolding in the future — every possible response, every reaction, every path this conversation could take. Most ended badly. Some ended worse. But lying now would nullify everything I had just done.

  It doesn't matter if I planned to tell her before; the fact is I only told her now, after all these events. I don't have the right to say otherwise.

  "Yes," I replied, without changing my voice or expression.

  The clock ticked five more times before Katia's response.

  "Understood, I thought you trusted me." she said, standing up. "Sorry, I'm leaving."

  She didn't ask for time to process or think, which means she understood everything I said and chose to leave... So this is how it ends? Well, it's still better than continuing that way. I wonder if there's still time to go back home?

  My gaze turned to the floor while Katia remained standing in front of me. Her feet, motionless. The hem of her uniform, motionless. Everything motionless, except my thoughts. I looked at my own arms resting on my legs, my fingers loose, inert. The room's floor was a surface without answers.

  It was then that something invaded my vision in the future. Two hands. Both grabbing each of my arms.

  What?

  The image was clear, close, inevitable. Before I could process the meaning, the sensation became real — fingers wrapping around my wrists, holding tightly, preventing any movement. She was there. Right in front of me. And her face had no expression, as if she was deliberately forcing herself into something.

  "Got you," she said.

  "Katia, wait, I—"

  The room simply tilted to the left, the walls sliding as if made of water, the ceiling occupying a place where there was once floor. My eyes tried to adjust, but the image refused to stabilize. The raw information that something had happened, transmitted by my nerves in real-time, while my brain was still trying to process what.

  They met in the middle — forehead. The skin was warm, throbbing in a rhythm that perfectly matched the pulse behind my eyes. My fingers pressed lightly, as if they could confirm through touch what my vision refused to accept.

  Outside, birds flapped their wings. Reacting to a sound that hadn't come from inside the room, just a coincidence that aligned. Every future I tried to visualize unfolded in the same scenario, led to the same conclusion, bumped into the fact I refused to accept:

  Katia had just headbutted me.

  She fall in the chair she was in before, the movement abrupt, clumsy. One hand went straight to her own forehead while the other supported herself on the arm of the chair to stabilize.

  "Ow," She complained while squeezing her eyes shut. "It hurts more than I expected."

  I still had both hands on my forehead, processing the information repeatedly without being able to reach a different conclusion.

  "Why did you do that?" The question came out muffled by my fingers. "You idiot."

  "I'm the idiot?" Katia lifted her head too quickly, the movement clearly regretting it immediately, the grimace of pain returning with force. "You're the idiot!"

  She pointed her finger in my direction, her hand still trembling from the impact.

  "First, you hide something this important for months. Me training with you, thinking I was incompetent, and you seeing everything beforehand and just leaving it alone."

  "Second, someone tries to kill you. Tries. To. Kill. You. And you come here, sit on the bed, and tell me as if it were a report. As if it weren't the most terrifying thing in the world."

  "Third, you still choose to try to sound nice. 'I want your help.'" She imitated my tone of voice with annoying precision. "As if that were an excuse. As if that made everything okay."

  She lowered her hand, but her eyes remained fixed on mine.

  "And worse than all of this," these words came out with more importance, "did you really think I would leave after hearing all of that?"

  "After everything we've been through. After everything I've seen you do. After all the training sessions, all the fights, all the times you saved me without me even knowing..." She shook her head, a short, irritated movement. "Did you think I would hear that and just... walk away?"

  "You know what else?" Katia continued, her voice still charged, but gradually losing its harshness. "If it weren't for the urgency of the situation, if there weren't someone out there trying to kill you, I swear I'd go a week without talking to you. A whole week. Maybe two."

  I still had my hands on my forehead, but now it was less because of the pain and more because I didn't know where else to put them.

  "I wasn't trying to sound nice," I said, my voice coming out lower than I expected. "I just don't know another way to tell this."

  Katia looked at me for a long moment. The gleam in her eyes was still there, but the anger seemed to have found a place to settle.

  "I know. If you had told me in another way, things would be different. It's precisely because I know you that I could say what you were thinking, but It doesn't matter anymore."

  Katia sighed, a long sound that seemed to carry half the tension accumulated in the room. She straightened her posture in the chair, her hands resting on her knees, her eyes finally dry.

  "So tell me," her voice was calmer now, more practical, the tone of someone shifting gears because there's no time to stand still. "Why would someone try to kill you? And why do you suspect it was Veyr?"

  I finally lowered my hands from my forehead and sat back on the bed, straightening my posture. The dizziness had already passed, replaced by a cold clarity I knew well. I took a deep breath, organizing the events that led to this situation. "Do you remember when you left me talking to Elian in the hallway? After coffee?"

  She crossed her arms., her gaze wandering for a moment as she sifted through her memory. "Yes."

  "Right after you left Elian questioned me. He asked me why I jumped before the collapse happened, and about some things that happened underground."

  Katia looked at the corner of the room, her fingers coming together with her chin in a thoughtful pose. "Jumped before the collapse? And what did you say?"

  "I made an excuse," I continued. "Talked about feeling the tremor in the ground, about reflexes. A bad excuse, but it worked. Normally I control myself not to let it show, but when it's a life-or-death situation like the collapse, that jump was instinctive."

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Right, where does Veyr come into the story?"

  "He was in the hallway. At the end of the conversation. I don't know for how long, but it's certain he heard the conversation."

  Katia scratched her head, her fingers sinking into her hair.

  "I'm not doubting," she said, her voice slower, processing. "But killing you? Isn't that too extreme? It's way beyond what someone would do just to test a suspicion?"

  "It depends on what he suspects," I replied.

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "Because, in a way, it was the only test that would work."

  Katia tilted her head, waiting.

  "If he suspects I can see the future, the only way to test that is by trying something I can't avoid without revealing what I know. In short, something lethal."

  She opened her mouth to respond, but I continued before she could.

  "There are two reasons. First," I paused briefly, "I can't see beyond my own death. That's the reason I'm sure why someone tried to kill me."

  Katia's face changed. The discomfort gave way to something more serious. Her eyes widened for an instant, but she kept silent.

  "When the future involves my death, it simply goes blank. I can't see what comes after, I'd say it's a logical extension, since we can't know what happens after it. Of course, I can take some action to prevent it from happening, but it's undoubtedly something that only happens in this situation."

  She swallowed dryly, but didn't interrupt.

  "Second," I continued, "if Veyr had tried something lighter, something that would only injure me, I could have chosen to take the damage. He'd have no confirmation."

  "But he tried to kill you," Katia completed, her voice lower. "So you couldn't ignore it."

  "Exactly. He forced me to choose between being alive or hiding what I know."

  The silence that followed was different from the others. It was a heavy silence, laden with implications we were both processing in parallel.

  "This is a problem," she said, her voice firm now, but with an edge I hadn't heard since we started the conversation. "A big problem."

  She leaned forward in the chair, her eyes fixed on mine.

  "Because this means that Veyr, at no point, thought he was wrong. He wasn't testing a theory carefully. He was willing to kill an innocent student to confirm a suspicion. That alone proves he won't give up or just leave it."

  I nodded slowly. "That's exactly why I wanted your help."

  Katia was silent for a moment, her fingers lightly drumming against the arm of the chair. Her gaze wandered around the room without really seeing anything — processing, organizing, doing exactly what she always did best.

  "I understood more or less, I mean, we're still in the dark about a lot of things. Before we think of any solution, I need you to explain how this works. But don't make it a summary; I need to know how it works for several things."

  Makes sense. The conclusion came. I imagined this scenario several times, and in none of them did I imagine it would be like this. My eyes scanned the room for something I could use.

  "Katia," I pointed to the small basket next to the table. "Get that, and hold it close to your body, anywhere you want."

  She raised an eyebrow, but didn't question. She stood up, walked to the table, and picked up the basket. She returned to near the chair and held it against her chest, waiting.

  "Right," I said, turning to the opposite side from where Katia was. The only thing I could see was the wall.

  I took a sheet of paper from the table and crumpled it quickly, turning it into an irregular little ball.

  "Without making noise," I continued, with my back turned, "move the basket somewhere else. Any position. When you're done, tell me."

  The silence stretched for a few seconds. I heard the faint rustle of fabric, nothing more. No footsteps. No dragging. Nothing that indicated movement.

  "Ready," Katia's voice came firmly, without any tremor that would betray her position.

  I threw the paper ball over my shoulder. Hitting the basket on the first try.

  Katia remained standing in the middle of the room, the basket still held against her body — on the left. Exactly where I knew it would be. But her face was a map of absolute confusion. Furrowed brow, wide eyes, mouth slightly open as if wanting to say something but the words had gotten lost along the way.

  "That was..." she began, shaking her head. "incredible. But I didn't understand anything."

  I sat on the edge of the bed, keeping my voice calm, didactic.

  "I turned my back to prove something: what I see is independent of my movement in the real world. It depends on what I plan to do."

  Katia just tilted her head to the side, one eyebrow still raised.

  "Before throwing the ball," I explained, "I mentally tested the action of turning around. Just that. The image that came in the future showed me that the basket would be on the left side of your body."

  She looked at the basket, still held on the left, and then at me.

  "So you already knew where it was. Even with your back turned."

  "Exactly. The first action future defined the target."

  "But how did you know with what force to throw the little ball? If you had missed, it would have been fine, but that wasn't the case."

  "That brings us to the second set of actions. Throwing the ball without looking required a second level of testing. Unlike the first one, which was just 'where will the basket be,' this one needed several futures. Several tests. Several strengths, several angles, until finding the only one that would hit the basket on the first try."

  Katia was silent for a moment, the basket still forgotten against her body.

  "You tested mentally," she said slowly, "all the possibilities. Until you found the one that worked."

  "Yes."

  "And in the real world, you just executed." She shook her head from side to side as if trying to get rid of something. She sat in the chair again, watching the paper ball in the basket. "I don't even know how to process this. I mean, what about intrusive thoughts? Does it happen with those too? Or can you turn it off somehow?"

  "I can't turn it off," I admitted. "And yes, it happens with any thought, intentional or not. But for some reason I can't predict my own thoughts."

  "So you're saying that if you imagine anything, for even a second, your mind already shows the future of that thing?"

  "Anything."

  She was silent for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was lower, more careful. "Isn't that... living with endless echoes inside your head?"

  "Honestly," I said, "I've never thought about it. It's always been like this. It just seems... normal."

  Katia didn't respond. She just looked at me, and there was something in that look I couldn't name.

  "Anyway," I returned to a practical tone, "I need one more thing. I'm going to close my eyes; I want you to touch me in random places. Shoulder, arm, anything. But if I get where you're going to touch before you touch me, you stop."

  "Sure," she replied, without hesitating.

  The test proceeded as expected. Katia couldn't touch me once.

  "Wait," she said, her hand still hovering in the air, frustrated. "Is this different from the last test? In this case, you just tested the possibility of opening your eyes mentally and saw where I would touch."

  "Not exactly. When I talk about the future, it's not just about vision. That's a simplification. Actually, I can sense it through smell, sound, touch. All together, depending on what's coming."

  "In this test," I continued, "I didn't open my eyes anywhere. I didn't see where you would touch. I just felt where the contact would happen and said it beforehand."

  Katia hesitated for a moment, her fingers drumming against her arm. "I cover your eyes with my hand," she suggested. "We repeat the test."

  "It wouldn't help. I could mentally test moving your hand. See the future where I do that and regain sight. The test would continue the same way."

  She frowned, clearly unsatisfied with the answer.

  "Katia," I tilted my head, "why don't you believe I can sense the future with other senses?"

  She sighed. A long, tired sound. When she looked at me, her expression was partially serious — not angry, not incredulous, just... something in between.

  "Never mind," she concluded.

  I didn't understand, but it doesn't seem like she's going to answer that either. Anyway, I think it's worth explaining what happened a few minutes ago.

  "A good example," I continued, trying to find a way to explain, "was the headbutt. First, you grabbed my arms. Prevented me from moving. Then..."

  "Then the future of the headbutt entered your vision," she completed, beginning to understand.

  "Yes. And when it entered, it was already too late. There was no more time to prevent it because I couldn't move."

  Katia was silent for a moment, processing.

  "Understood," she finally said. Then, with a more practical voice: "How far ahead can you see?"

  "About four seconds. And all of this, I believe."

  Katia let out the longest sigh since the beginning of the conversation. The air left her lungs as if carrying half the weight of the room with it.

  "Honestly, it's hard to judge you for hiding something like this, when my father and I saw the orb show no color, this possibility didn't cross our minds, because this is simply unthinkable. Do you have any plan?"

  "Primarily," I began, "I thought about asking Bela for help. Or Kael."

  Katia shook her head after I finished the sentence. "It won't work. During my interrogation, Bela had to leave along with Selene. Something about a last-minute summons. Right now, Veyr is the person with the highest position in the academy. Sorry for bringing you bad news"

  "And the professors?" I asked. "What do you think?"

  "Honestly? It's an option. But not a good one. If we do that," she explained, her fingers returning to drum against the arm of the chair, "we'd have to explain the reason. And explaining the reason means revealing everything you just told me."

  "And even then, it would still be hard to prove Veyr did anything. The ice needle disappeared. Left no trace. It would be your word against a vice-director's secretary."

  "So it's not a good option," I concluded.

  "It's a shot in the dark," Katia corrected. "It might work, but the chances are low. If this secret were widely known, I'm sure there would be a wave of people to defend you, but the opposite is also true. In any case, your life would never be the same."

  I knew it. If the reaction of someone with a high position is to do this after minimally suspecting my ability, then there must not be another magic or something like this, at least not in the Fontana region. Selene also didn't recognize it in the entrance exam, which means that even high-ranking people are unaware. Or maybe I'm underestimating people too much?

  "And letters?" I asked, without much hope. "Find a way to send a message to Bela or Kael?"

  Katia denied before I even finished. "Too slow. And even if it weren't, they'd pass through the school's supervision."

  We both sighed at the same time. A tired, synchronized sound that would almost be comical in any other situation.

  I looked at the floor. Then at the window. Then at Katia.

  "Is running the only option left?"

  She was silent for a moment. Her head low, her eyes fixed on some point on the floor between us. "Yes. But only while Bela and Selene aren't back. Only until we have a safe alternative."

  "Is Selene trustworthy?"

  Katia thought for a moment. Her fingers drummed against the arm of the chair once more.

  "Yes," she finally said. "At least according to Bela."

  I threw myself onto the bed. The ceiling returned to being my favorite interlocutor, white, silent, asking no questions or drawing difficult conclusions.

  If he deduced all this, it's unlikely he didn't think of a countermeasure in case I try to run. The logical leap he had to make from good reflexes to foreseeing the future is too big; maybe it's not just that?

  Katia's voice came softer. "Don't look so down."

  A sigh escaped before I could hold it back. "It's not that. If I hadn't kept this for so long, things wouldn't have reached this point."

  "I'm not so sure," she declared. "Now that I have more context, I'm starting to understand why you didn't tell anyone. Less so me, of course." She laughed right after.

  Before I could respond, she raised her hand in a dramatic gesture. "But don't worry. There's no future where I spill this secret."

  Better not answer that.

  "It's normal to have secrets," Katia said, still with a trace of humor in her voice, "but I feel better knowing you're not carrying something of this magnitude alone."

  I was about to respond with something, anything, when my finger found the middle of my forehead in an automatic gesture. The memory came accompanied by an averted gaze I couldn't control. The silence stretched longer than it should have.

  "Mio, why are you acting like you have more to tell?" Katia's voice narrowed along with her gaze. "Are you joking with me?"

  "No."

  "There's more?"

  "There is."

  Katia ran her hand over her face in a gesture of pure exhaustion. "How much more?"

  "We better leave the room first," I said, getting up and walking toward the door. "I need some air."

  She took a deep breath before standing up. "You know, if you tell me you saw a ghost town in the middle of nowhere, I'll believe you. After everything, why not?"

  My hand stopped on the doorknob at Katia's absurd statement. Does she know?

  "Let's go," Katia said, standing up and stretching her arms above her head. "Before you change your mind."

  We descended the dormitory stairs in silence, our footsteps echoing on the stone steps. Night had fallen completely, and the only light came from the magic lamps positioned at regular intervals along the corridor.

  "Stay at my house," Katia suggested when we reached the entrance hall. "It's closer."

  The word "no" was already formed in my throat. Instinctive. Automatic. But before it could be spoken, a future passed too quickly through my mind — Katia with her arms crossed, her gaze irritated, asking me why I always had to complicate everything.

  She'll get angry.

  "Won't this be a problem for your family?" I asked, instead of refusing.

  Katia stopped walking and turned to me with an expression of absolute incredulity.

  "How could this possibly be a problem? We're not doing anything wrong. When Bela returns, we'll explain the situation; she has more resources to deal with this."

  "We have a plan," I replied, taking a step outside the dormitory.

  "Good, and about what you..." Katia was interrupted, her gaze leaving my face for the same place I was observing.

  The main road leading to the Academy was completely filled. Hundreds of students occupied the path, their silhouettes outlined against the torches some were carrying. In the middle of the crowd, a group stood out. They were figures with heavy, shiny robes, figures that although rare at the moment, anyone would recognize: Military personnel.

  Katia assumed a completely serious tone. The lightness from seconds ago disappeared as if it had never existed.

  "Mio," her voice was low, controlled, "do you have your dagger with you?"

  "Yes," I replied, feeling the familiar weight against my leg. "But maybe fighting isn't the best option."

  "I know," she said, her eyes fixed on the crowd ahead. "But if something gets out of control, you go back to my house. And ask for Corto, tell him to take you to the head of the staff."

  I nodded, a short movement. And slowly we began to walk toward the buzz of people.

  As soon as we passed through the gate, we stopped for a moment to observe the group.

  "They look like a bunch of curious onlookers," Katia murmured, her eyes sweeping the crowd. "Nothing more than that."

  "Yeah," I agreed, analyzing the expressions, the postures, the way people clustered without any apparent direction. "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with me."

  I don't think this is the method Veyr would choose to try anything.

  Katia let out a relieved sigh. Her shoulders, tense until that moment, relaxed a fraction. "Thank goodness. For a second I thought we'd have to deal with the military too."

  In the midst of so many unfamiliar faces, one stood out. Familiar. Standing like a statue in the flow of people.

  "Katia," I pointed discreetly. "Hadrian is over there. Maybe he knows what's happening."

  Hadrian was motionless, his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze fixed on some distant point that wasn't the crowd or the military. We passed through the crowd, not so unnoticed, some glances still shifted to find our way among so many people.

  Hadrian seemed not to notice our arrival, his posture remained rigid and his gaze betrayed that he was immersed in something.

  "Hi," Katia initiated the greeting. "Katia to Hadrian, contact."

  "Two?" The word came from Hadrian without him realizing it. Katia and I looked at each other to confirm if we were seeing something.

  I approached Hadrian enough for him to notice; he was a bit startled by the sudden approach. "Mio, Katia, where were you?"

  He seems to have regained awareness. "I was in the dormitory. More importantly, what happened?"

  Hadrian seemed to hesitate before answering. His eyes shifted to the guards for a moment, then to the closed carriage they were escorting, as if searching for the best way to formulate the words.

  My vision slid in the same direction, giving me half the answer Hadrian seemed to be formulating. The indigo hair, so dark it seemed to swallow the light of the surrounding torches. The heavy clothes covering every inch of skin. The erect, motionless posture, watching.

  A subtle movement of my head was enough for Katia to follow my gaze. I felt when she also saw him, the tension instantly returning to her shoulders.

  It was then that Hadrian's voice came from behind, a tone low enough that we wouldn't have heard it due to the number of people present, but the words somehow came out with incomparable clarity:

  "I don't know what happened." We both turned at the same time. Hadrian was looking at us with an expression that wavered between shock and disbelief. "Elian was accused of espionage. That's why the military is here."

  No exchange of glances was necessary. Like Hadrian, all we did was continue watching. The carriage wheels beat slowly along the path, surrounded by military personnel. The image of Veyr observing the vehicle being pulled was all that remained, leaving a single question that permeated the entire morning: What we do now?